


The Oldest

by robertstankjr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Harley Keener is Pepper Potts’s Biological Child, Harley Keener is Tony Stark’s Biological Child, Harley Keener is a little shit, Kid Peter Parker, Morgan Stark is a little shit, Not Canon Compliant, Pepper Potts Dies, Peter Parker is Pepper Potts's Biological Child, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, but a precious bean, definitely not, fluffy Pancakes, we already know Morgan Stark is their biological child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:42:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24431533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robertstankjr/pseuds/robertstankjr
Summary: After the death of his mother, Peter realizes how broken his father becomes, and having to take care of three kids, one being a toddler,  probably isn’t exciting. So Peter, being the oldest, decides to take charge. He helps his dad raise his siblings for the longest time- right up until he reaches college.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Harley Keener, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Kudos: 236





	The Oldest

**Author's Note:**

> While working on Our Second Chance I decided to make this little story! I had so many ideas for this, but some got cut out because this is supposed to be more of a one-shot thing.

“I’ll only be about 45 minutes. Take care of your brother and your sister!” Tony called, disappearing into the lab to test a theory. 

“Got it.” Peter nodded. He understood how important this was for his dad. He was trying to preserve the energy he was using by a great amount for his technology, so it was definitely something to be taken care of right away.

“I’m hungry.” Harley grumbled, walking into the living room.

“There’s salad in the fridge from yesterday. We need to finish it soon before it gets bad.” Peter offered.

“I want pancakes though,” the eight year old groaned. “The salad has too much tomato.”

Peter sighed, walking into the kitchen and taking out ingredients to make pancakes. “It’s supposed to have tomatoes, it’s healthy.”

That’s when Morgan bounded into the living room. “Did someone say pancakes?” she asked excitedly.

“Yep!” Peter replied. “I’m making some right now. Unless you want salad, which is what we _need_ to eat.”

The four year old made a face at her brother. “Too much tomato.”

“That’s what I said!” Harley agreed.

“Alright, alright. I’ll eat the salad and you guys have the pancakes so we don’t get in trouble. You two owe me big time.” 

Harley narrowed his eyes. “I’m not having a Star Wars marathon with you. Those movies are like two weeks long.”

“It won’t be just you, Harls. It’ll be Morgan too. I have to educate her on fine films,” the ten year old smiled cheekily.

The girl tilted her head. “Star Wars?”

“Greatest series you’ll ever see Maguna!” Peter started going on a rant, flipping the pancakes, while Harley rolled his eyes and went back to his show. 

After about 10 minutes, the breakfasts had been set on the table and Morgan and Harley were eating everything.

“Slow down, geez. You’re gonna choke.” Peter warned, finishing up a salad and taking one pancake for himself.

“That’s the plan.” Harley stuffed more food into his mouth.

“Thank you, Petey!” Morgan said after swallowing her first bite.

“You’re welcome, Morgan. At least someone has manners,” he glared at his brother.

“Sorry. Thank you for choosing to feed us over starving us,” the boy said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome.”

After eating, Harley asked Peter for help on his math homework while Morgan played with her toys.

“I hate homework on the weekends.” Harley complained, putting his head down. Peter looked to see only a mop of dark blonde hair.

“You’ll like it better when math starts merging with science. Carry the six.” Peter told him.

“Can I just skip this and watch tv? I think I already know how to do it. If you finish these problems for me, I’ll do the dishes for one week!” Harley pleaded.

His older brother looked like he was contemplating it. “It would be a very relaxing week. But you need practice on these problems. Dad has _me_ in charge anyway.”

“Fine.” Harley sighed. Then he looked to his younger sister. “Hey, Morgan, you wanna be smart, right?” She nodded. “What if I teach you how to do this work, and then you do all these problems,” he whispered to her. 

Morgan stroked her chin, like she saw people do in the movies. She hummed for a while. “Hmm.” She looked him dead in the eye. “No.”

Harley shrugged, going back to doing his work. “It was worth a shot.”

Peter shook his head disapprovingly but smiled nonetheless. “Good job, Morgan.” he praised.

Tony came out of the lab looking proud. “Good day, my little devils.” Peter could tell his theory worked. “What’s popping?”

Harley shuddered. “Don’t ever say that again!”

“I left some pancakes for you, dad. We finished the salad too.” Peter informed him after laughing at Harley’s comment.

“Alright, alright. Thanks, Pete.” Tony looked at his eldest gratefully. 

Tony served himself on a plate, ate and was just about to get up when Morgan interrupted him.

“Daddy, your phone is ringing!” 

“I’ll get that.” He rushed for his phone, quickly answering and talking to the person on the other side while Harley gave him his homework to check.

Peter made his way to the kitchen again to wash the plates. Three years ago, he would have ran away at the thought of washing the dishes, believe it or not. But things had really changed throughout those years. When Peter was seven, Harley was five, and Morgan was just one year old, their mother, Pepper, had gotten into a car accident and died.

It had crushed Tony. 

If he didn’t have children to take care of, he was pretty sure he would have locked himself away and tinkered with everything he could find. But he couldn’t. Three small humans depended on him.

And even though Tony tried to hide his pain and grieving, saving his cries for the night, Peter saw, and heard. He had also been staying up later, thinking about his mom. Harley was old enough to understand that his mommy was gone, but too young to register it all. Morgan was still a baby. So Peter decided to help his dad out. 

He still did, taking care of his siblings when his dad was busy, or when he was reminded too much of Pepper.

He told himself that until the day he wasn’t needed, he would be there for them. He would tell them stories of their mother, and Morgan would grow up knowing her mom a little bit more than before. 

“I really need help, I have no idea what _any_ of this means, but dad is busy.”

“I’ll help. What’s the problem?”

  
“I accidentally spilled my juice on the couch.” Morgan whimpered, her eyes glistening with tears.

“It’s okay, we’ll clean it up. You know where the rags are, right?” Peter rubbed her back. 

Peter had learned to minimize the amount of times he asked his dad for help. He loved his dad, really, and knew that with one yell “Dad, help” he would come running to his child’s aid, but three kids was a lot for one parent, so Peter tried his best to minimize the amount of times they needed their dad’s help. It was either Harley or Morgan that asked for him, and at the end of the week, Tony would always settle down on the couch for a movie of Peter’s choice. 

He would have a calendar for every important date, an alarm for school or anything else throughout the day, usually Morgan or Harley’s school activities, an organized schedule, and would study every chance he got (his goal was to never need help on homework, and he achieved it). Besides that, he was like any other kid. Well, teenager now. He had an album on his phone dedicated to memes, he had two friends, Ned and MJ, loved building legos, and had some angsty days.

That brought him to the week before he was going off to MIT. Morgan was now twelve years old, and Harley was sixteen.

“You two grow up too fast, you know that?” Peter asked, poking Morgan and tickling her.

“You’re just old!” Morgan wheezed.

Her brother gasped, mock offended. “You’ve been spending way too much time with potato gun over there.”

“Hey!” Harley shouted. “That was like five years ago!”

“Sure was! And it’s still funny as hell.” Peter laughed.

“Shut the fuck up.” Harley said grumpily.

“Watch your mouth, Morgan’s here. What would Uncle Steve say?”

“I’m not a baby!” Morgan exclaimed at the same time as Harley said, “Uncle Steve and his weird swearing peeve can suck my-“

“Lollipop!” Tony smiled, walking in with groceries. 

“I don’t know if that’s better.” Peter raised an eyebrow. 

“Eh.” the dad replied, setting bags down. “Since it’s your last week at home before you make history, Pete, I’ve bought every ingredient to your favorite meal. Also, your brother and sister are in on a little surprise for you.”

“You guys don’t have to,” Peter said, already feeling thankful.

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. Or anything else that shoots down our big plan. Let us spoil you at least once before you leave.”

“Fine.” he rolled his eyes playfully. “Just once.”

* * *

“Hey, hey. Leave it, I got this,” Tony tried to convince his son.

“I would believe you if you didn’t put milk in that rice maker.” Peter deadpanned.

Harley didn’t look up from his phone when he piped up, “Oh, that was me. I told him to do it because I thought I saw you do it a couple of times.”

“That was rice that I put in there, hence the name rice maker.” Peter snarked.

“How was I supposed to know?” Harley asked.

Morgan rolled her eyes at her brother. “You’re sixteen, not six.”

“Shut up, you’re like, two years old you have no say in the matter.” Harley threw a carrot top in her direction.

“No I’m not!” she argued.

“That’s what they _all_ say.”

Tony interrupted before their fight could escalate. Harley loves teasing his little sister way too much. “I thought I remembered you two agreeing to help me cook.”

“On it, dad.” Morgan hopped off her chair and went straight to cutting vegetables, not before Peter made sure the knife she used was small.

“You too Harley.” Tony scolded.

“I’m blending.” he told everyone.

Peter shook his head tiredly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help? I could just do part of it.” Peter wasn’t sure about letting them cook. Of course Tony has prepared meals for them before, but it was usually simple, like Mac and cheese, pasta, or mashed potatoes, but this dish was a little harder than before. Peter had done most of the cooking when he was old enough, and he was worried they’d put the kitchen on fire like they nearly did the first day of the week.

“No, get out of here.” Harley said over his shoulder.

“If you guys say so.” Peter went to his room and decided to do things he hadn’t done in a long time. He spent two hours playing video games, building a lego set, saving memes, talking to his friends, and thinking about his mom when he was called over by his family.

“Food’s ready!” Tony yelled.

“Coming!”

Peter went to the dining room to find a very organized table and food neatly on four plates. 

“Wow. It actually looks… _good_.” Peter marveled.

“Should we be offended or proud?” Morgan asked nervously.

“Definitely proud.”

His sister smiled, then went to the closest chair and pulled it out and gestured for Peter to sit. After he got comfortable, everybody else sat down.

“We should’ve made a contract beforehand so Peter couldn’t sue us if we gave him food poisoning.” Harley commented.

“He’ll be fine as long as he stays away from whatever you made,” Morgan said sarcastically.

Peter let out a chuckle at Harley’s expression. “We’ll see.”

“Are we gonna sit here and make fun of Harley or actually eat? Because I’m starving.” Tony remarked, tucking a napkin in his shirt. 

During that dinner, the family had each let out at least two tears, and it ended with a group hug. They had talked about everything- from Morgan’s latest animal crossing adventure, to their mother. They had shared laughs, thanks, tears, and stories.

The next morning had hit them hard. Peter was going to actually leave.

“I made pancakes!”

“You should’ve slept in as long as you could, Pete.” Tony told him. Peter narrowed his eyes. “Okay, okay, thank you. But I stand by what I said.”

Morgan walked into the room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and sniffing the air. Her eyes widened. “Pancakes!”

“Is it dad’s or is it P.P.?” Harley shouted from his bedroom upstairs.

“P.P.!” Morgan yelled back. 

Peter rolled his eyes, groaning. “I thought P.P. went away!”

“Is it bothering you?” Harley laughed, out of breath after running down the stairs. 

“Kind of.”

“Good. You should be happy anyway, your pancakes are the fluffiest in the state.”

“Well, cherish them.”

After breakfast, everyone had been reluctant to get all dressed up and ready for the airport. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to get dressed- but doing it would only mean they were one step closer to saying bye to Peter.

Harley had taken the shortest amount of time to get ready, besides Peter who already had everything packed. Morgan was next, and Tony was last. He had sauntered out of the room with a clean suit and his signature sunglasses. 

“It hides the pain.” He had explained. It was a joke, but they knew it was true. 

The drive to the airport was chaotic. Tony was driving, and the kids were in the back messing around. It didn’t bother Tony, it brought a smile to his face, and a picture of a proud Pepper to his mind. In the backseat, they had managed to watch the Bee Movie and quote every single line (Tony would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed), play monopoly (he wouldn’t even question it), and just talk. Tony piped in more than once, and they even argued about the best decade of music.

Even when they got out of the car, they were still teasing each other, making the worst jokes and puns, that they _definitely_ got from their father, and clinging on to each other. As relaxed as they looked, he could tell they were scared to let go. Spending so much time together, they were closer than ever, and there was nobody they would trust more than their siblings. 

It wasn’t until Peter was going to board on the plane next, that everybody’s smile dropped. 

Morgan’s eyes got watery, and so did Harley’s. Tony let a tear slip, but he promised Pepper to stay strong for their kids. He couldn’t break that.

Peter sent them a sad smile. “Well, you won’t have to worry about stepping on legos anymore, right?”

Morgan pouted. “I _want_ to worry about it.”

Grinning, Peter knelt down to pull his sister in a tight hug, and soon she let out a muffled sob.

“It’s okay,” he soothed, rubbing her back. “I’ll be back before you know it, and you’ll get tired of me again.” He felt her nod into his shoulder, and he let go, pulling away just enough to see her face to face. He brushed her hair behind her ear and kissed her cheek. “Don’t forget to put Harley in his place. I’m counting on you. I don’t want to come home and see him floating near the ceiling because his head got too big.” 

Morgan sniffed. “Okay.”

“Alright? You can keep my Xbox. I know sharing with Harley is hell.”

“Yeah.” she agreed.

“Love you, Maguna.”

“I love you too, Petey. I love you 3000.”

“Yeah, but I love you to infinity and beyond,” he smiled.

Standing back up, he pulled Harley into a hug before the other boy could react. Slowly, his brother hugged him back, and when he did, he held on as tight as he could. 

“I can’t believe your stupid ass is leaving already.” Harley mumbled. “And I can’t believe we can’t _visit._ ”

“Dad wants college to be as normal as possible, so my apologies.” Peter chuckled.

“You better call everyday. Despite popular belief, I’ll miss you. A lot.”

“I’ll miss you too. I don’t know how I can go another day without mentioning a potato gun.” 

“Well you better find out. It’s been going on for years.” he complained.

“I plan to keep it that way. And make sure to remind Morgan about her homework. Tell her to wash behind her ears. She can’t be awake past 10:30. And-“

“To wash her hands everyday after school. Surprisingly, after years of being told that, I remembered.” Harley said sarcastically. “I love you tons.” he sighed.

“I love you too.” He let go and before he could move, was wrapped in a hug by his dad, causing Morgan and Harley to laugh.

“My Petey-Pie is growing up.” Tony wiped a fake tear. Or a real one.

“Well, that’s usually how it works.” Peter grinned.

“Unfortunately. We are calling you everyday, you will update us about everything.” he ordered. He pulled away to look at his grown up son’s face. “What are we gonna do without you?”

“Die, probably.” Peter joked.

Tony rolled his eyes, pulling Peter in for another hug. He pressed a kiss to his cheek, and whispered. “I don’t think I’ve said this enough, so thank you. So, so much. Everything you’ve done, everything you’ve made your responsibility, thank you. I think I’ve got it from here on out.”

“Wouldn’t doubt it.”

“You’re so much like her, Peter.” Tony said shakily.

Peter felt tears well up in his eyes, and closed them tightly. Normally he’d be welcomed by the view of complete darkness but all he saw was her smiling face.

“She would be so proud of you. She told me an hour after you were born, you were going to be amazing. She and I are _so_ proud.” Tony sniffed, voice cracking.

Peter nodded, but he didn’t want to cry. If he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop. “I know.” Inhale. “I know.” Exhale. 

He hugged tighter, and when it was time, he let go. Peter smiled at his family, and suddenly had a burst of happiness. He was so, very lucky.

“I’ll miss you guys so much.” He heard the signal from a woman about boarding the plane. “I love you.”

“We love you too!” they all shouted, almost simultaneously. 

Peter turned around and headed farther away with his luggage. He turned around one last time, and saw proud smiles looking back at him, and that was all the motivation he needed to move forward, toward his future.


End file.
